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enGoogle Cracks Down on Marketers' Access to Data http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/google-cracks-down-marketers-access-data-160543
Garett Sloane<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/unnamed_6.jpg"> <p>
Google is tightening its grip on advertising data, and some industry sources fear the policies could hamper their ability to market online.</p>
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Just this week, Google began talking to ad technology partners about restrictions on how they gather data when running campaigns on the Google Display Network. Some sources said the timing was odd, coming on the heels of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebooks-new-people-based-ad-technology-marketing-nirvana-160438" target="_blank">Facebook&#39;s launch of Atlas,</a> an ad server and data platform that many say is the biggest rival to Google&#39;s dominance. Still, other sources said Google is just reinforcing a data regime it has been working on for some time.</p>
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In the conversations this week, with companies like Krux, BlueKai and Lotame, Google told data management platform players that they could not use pixels in certain ads. The pixels&mdash;embedded within digital ads&mdash;help marketers target and understand how many times a given user has seen their messages online.</p>
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&quot;Google is only allowing data management platforms to fire pixels on creative assets that they&#39;re serving, on impressions they bought, through the Google Display Network,&quot; said Mike Moreau, chief solutions officer at Krux. &quot;So they&#39;re starting with a very narrow scope.&quot;</p>
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These third-party data firms are still allowed to use pixels if they also execute the ad buys, acting as the demand-side platforms, but the problem is many marketers use multiple demand-side platforms to buy ads and only one data management platform, Moreau said.</p>
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<strong>Impact on Ad Buyers Could Be Big</strong></p>
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One of the potential impacts is that marketers won&#39;t be able to effectively track campaigns that run across the Web from Google to AOL to Yahoo&mdash;they might not be able to connect the dots and efficiently allocate marketing dollars, industry sources said. Marketers could wind up buying more impressions than they need from Google if they can&rsquo;t monitor the frequency of ads being served, Moreau said.</p>
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He also said that the talks are ongoing and Google has been open to listening to the concerns of the data executives to get them the information they need.</p>
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The wider fear, however, is that cracking down on pixels on the Google Display Network is just the start, and there could be a bigger effect on marketers if Google instituted similar policies throughout the DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX).</p>
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&quot;Right now it&#39;s a relatively small percentage of marketers buying impressions through Google Display Network,&quot; Moreau said. &quot;If it expands to AdX, it starts to become really significant.&quot;</p>
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Google&#39;s data policies are important because they effect how marketers choose to execute online campaigns, and any barriers to gathering data could encourage them to use more of Google&#39;s services where there is naturally less friction, sources said. Google, much like Facebook, could become a walled garden of data.</p>
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Another data company exec said that Google could threaten the lifeline of their business.</p>
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&quot;Google is generally trying to change the way we consume data,&quot; an industry source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. &quot;It could cause issues for the third-party data market, which could no longer provide measurements for clients.&quot;</p>
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Google said that talks with data partners this week did not signify changes in its policies. The outreach was about enforcing <a href="https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/94230?hl=en" target="_blank">current policies.</a></p>
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&quot;We routinely run checks of our systems,&quot; Google said in a statement today. &quot;If partners aren&#39;t compliant with our current policies, we&#39;ll notify them and work with them to make any needed adjustments.&quot;</p>
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<strong>Google Looks to Stop the Leakage</strong></p>
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Google is taking steps to prevent data leakage, according to Adam Berke, CMO of AdRoll. Leakage happens when data firms operate in a gray area, collecting user information that Google considers proprietary.</p>
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&quot;Even before this Facebook Atlas announcement, Google was starting a process of getting its house in order with respect to third parties and data collection on their display network,&quot; he said.</p>
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Google&#39;s adjustments could be part of its broader strategy around identity technology, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/google-s-latest-role-cookie-monster-153712" target="_blank">creating the next-generation data tools to enable cross-device marketing</a> to consumers jumping from phones to laptops to TV. This is the next frontier of digital advertising that both Facebook and Google are positioning themselves to dominate, considering they likely have the most lucrative data on the most mobile users.</p>
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&quot;Google is moving forward with more interesting applications of identity, which it can&#39;t do if data leakage is a problem,&quot; Berke said.</p>
TechnologyadrollAdvertising WeekAdXAtlas SolutionsBlueKaiGarett SloaneDatadataDoubleclickdoubleclick ad exchangeFacebookFacebookGoogleGoogleGoogle AdXLotamethird-party cookiesFri, 03 Oct 2014 18:02:10 +0000160543 at http://www.adweek.comFacebook Denies Google Access to FBXhttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-denies-google-access-fbx-147809
Tim Peterson<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/peterson-tt-fbvg-hed-2013.jpg"> <p>
Facebook and Google aren&rsquo;t exactly besties, and the social giant&rsquo;s latest move won&rsquo;t help matters. In recent weeks Facebook has made two friends through moves that will simultaneously help its own advertising business and hurt Google&rsquo;s.</p>
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Last month, Adobe and AOL joined Facebook Exchange, the social network&rsquo;s display retargeting platform beloved by direct-response advertisers who are typically big-time Google buyers. Google was conspicuously not included.</p>
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That could give a leg up to those looking to build end-to-end ad tech platforms for advertisers. FBX access &ldquo;is a key differentiator,&rdquo; said Ned Brody, CEO of <a href="http://www.aolnetworks.com/" target="_blank">AOL Networks</a>. Adobe Advertising Solutions&rsquo; senior director of new product innovation Justin Merickel called the exchange &ldquo;a huge inventory source.&rdquo;</p>
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Indeed, as Google, Adobe, AOL and others endeavor to own the digital ad space&rsquo;s plumbing, the absence of FBX inventory can be a glaring gap. During Facebook&rsquo;s most recent earnings call, COO Sheryl Sandberg said by December Facebook Exchange was serving more than 1 billion impressions daily from more than 1,300 advertisers a day. In the first month that Adobe began testing FBX, one advertiser ended up seeing 32 percent of its impressions run on the exchange, impressions that would normally be spread across seven suppliers. IgnitionOne CEO Will Margiloff projected FBX will quickly become the No. 2 RTB inventory source behind Google&rsquo;s AdX exchange.</p>
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&ldquo;[Google&rsquo;s] <a href="http://www.google.com/doubleclick/" target="_blank">DoubleClick</a> Bid Manager is used by hundreds of agencies and businesses to buy inventory across dozens of private and publisher exchanges and platforms,&rdquo; said a Google spokesperson. &ldquo;Google clients would like to access <a href="http://www.insidefacebook.com/category/advertising/fbx/" target="_blank">FBX</a> through that platform as well, but that is not available today.&rdquo; Facebook declined to comment.</p>
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Being shut out of FBX &ldquo;is not helping Google, but I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s going to have that dramatic of an impact,&rdquo; observed IDC analyst Karsten Weide. &ldquo;Long term that may be a different story, but today [Google has] so much search inventory that they don&rsquo;t really need Facebook inventory.&rdquo;</p>
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Still, Facebook and Google have been in discussions about working together since FBX launched, sources said, dismissing the notion of a cold war between the companies. Instead, what is holding Facebook back is a desire to keep Google from comparing the quality of its inventory with sources, they said.</p>
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Conceivably, that point of contention should also apply to AOL and Adobe, though both companies are pitching their platforms&rsquo; abilities to show FBX performance data side-by-side with other ad buys. FBX &ldquo;is just another inventory source, albeit a powerful one,&rdquo; Brody said. Merickel echoed Brody&rsquo;s sentiment but explicitly emphasized Adobe&rsquo;s independence from publishing inventory, implying its position is unlike Google and AOL both of whom play on the demand and supply side of online advertising.</p>
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For now FBX inventory is holding its own and then some. In the first month Adobe tested the exchange, its advertisers saw a 70 percent higher conversion rate and 50 percent lower cost-per-lead for FBX ads compared to the average rate seen among eight other real-time bidding sources. But there can be reasons FBX may not always be the best pick, and Adobe&rsquo;s and AOL&rsquo;s platforms could bring those instances to light, changing how advertisers value the exchange.</p>
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&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to understand that the bigger scale you have as a network or [demand-side platform], you can identify what is the best place for a client to buy that [impression.]&hellip;If you have true scale, you can say &#39;we predict we will see this person in two hours on another site and we know from our bidding history that it&rsquo;s less expensive to buy on that site than Facebook or vice versa,&#39;&rdquo; Brody said.</p>
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However advertisers placing FBX bids through Adobe or AOL could experience some initial growing pains, said Zach Coelius, CEO of demand-side platform, one of the initial eight FBX partners. He estimated it would take about six months for AOL and Adobe to get up to speed with FBX partners like his that have been using the exchange and refining their technology to ensure the best buys for advertisers since last summer.</p>
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&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve already gone through five versions of our optimization algorithm and so have other launch partners,&rdquo; he said. However, both Merickel and Brody downplayed any technical hurdles.</p>
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Regardless, AOL and Adobe will still have a head-start if and when Google plugs into the exchange. Until then the two companies could parlay their FBX access into more advertisers using their end-to-end platforms, potentially instead of Google&rsquo;s.</p>
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Plus, Facebook appears to be building its own ad tech platform, given its recent acquisition of ad server Atlas Solutions, which should improve its ability to attribute ads&rsquo; performance. &ldquo;A super strategic move to get where they&rsquo;ve always wanted to be in advertising,&rdquo; said Weide. In short: on Google&rsquo;s level.</p>
TechnologyMarketingAdXAolDataFacebookTim PetersonFBXGoogleMagazine ContentMobileSocialMon, 11 Mar 2013 03:26:37 +0000147809 at http://www.adweek.com